Leslie T. Thornton

LESLIE T. THORNTON is the Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of WGL Holdings, Inc. (“WGL”) and Washington Gas Light Company, having joined that company as Counsel to the Chairman in November 2011. Ms. Thornton is responsible for developing, coordinating, and providing legal advice and counsel to WGL and its subsidiaries on litigation, regulatory affairs, business transactions, mergers and acquisitions, employment and labor law, employee benefits issues, ethics, compliance, cyber-threats/cyber-security, and other matters. Ms. Thornton also serves on WGL's Strategy Council, Risk Management Committee, Compliance Committee, and the SOX Management Committee.

Prior to joining the company, Ms. Thornton was a partner at Dickstein Shapiro and also Patton Boggs. Beginning with the Presidential Transition of 1992 and until 2000, Ms. Thornton worked with the U.S. Secretary of Education, first as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor, and then as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Education (“ED”). During her tenure at ED, she advised the Secretary on all ED matters; served as the liaison between the Secretary and the White House on policy, political, ethics, and personnel matters. In 1996, Ms. Thornton was selected to be on Mr. Clinton’s presidential debate team. Since 2005, Ms. Thornton has been a member of the board of Career Education Corporation, a publicly traded company, where she has chaired the Compliance Committee and has been a member of the Nominating & Governance Committee for nine years. Currently, Ms. Thornton remains chair of the Compliance Committee and now serves on the Audit Committee. She served as Lead Independent Director from 2011-2013. In June of this year (2015), Ms. Thornton was elected as a National Association of Corporate Directors Board Leadership Fellow. Ms. Thornton holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center, and is currently studying for an LL.M. degree in Georgetown Law’s National Security Law program (expected 2016). Ms. Thornton is a frequently requested speaker on various issues related to board service, the GC function, diversity, and cyber security, among other topics. Her opinion pieces have been widely published.